Prefabricated homes and commercial structures employ roofing units comprising asphaltic courses or shingles securely sealed on a roof deck for subsequent assembly and installation. Many of the processes heretofore employed for affixing asphaltic materials to a roof deck pose several problems involving cost and/or time consuming adherence. For example, certain processes require several days to cure and seal the asphaltic overlay to the deck structure. To overcome this drawback, costly radiant heating has been used to shorten the cure time; however, this solution, because of indirect heating sites, fails to provide uniform sealing results. As a consequence, a roof unit so treated is subject to sections of shingle or strip xe2x80x9cblow offxe2x80x9d. Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a process to overcome the above problems in an economical and commercially feasible manner. More specifically, it is an object of this invention to provide a process which reduces the asphalt adhesion time to not more than a few hours while simultaneously providing a seal which is uniformly secure over the entire deck surface of a prefabricated roof unit.
In accordance with this invention, an unattached asphaltic surface covering on a roof deck is contacted with a covering matrix containing a heating element at a temperature sufficient to cure the asphaltic material and seal it to the deck. The present roofing assembly comprises a wood, metal or concrete roof deck overlaid with asphaltic shingles or courses of asphaltic roofing material and a heatable matrix covering the asphaltic material and having a size and shape adapted to blanket at least a portion thereof, said matrix containing a heating element capable of distributing heat at a temperature sufficient to seal the asphaltic material to the deck.